Spell hit
Spell hit is a combat attribute that increases a caster's chance to hit with spells. Spell hit is primarily obtained from talents or gear that has hit rating. The more gear with hit rating a caster has the lower the chance the caster's spells will miss (i.e. an enemy resist the spells). With patch 3.0.2, spell hit is capped at 100%; with enough spell hit, it is possible to reach a state where it is impossible for your spells to miss. A spell that fails to hit is shown as a miss, while misses caused by a target's resistance is shows as a resist. Spell hit has no effect on healing spells, as they will always hit. Spell hit rating is part of the combat rating system that was introduced with Patch 2.0 and the Burning Crusade expansion. Each point of hit rating increases chance to hit with spells (and melee weapons, though this article only focuses on the spell portion) by a percentage. The exact percentage per point is based only on the players level as confirmed by Blizzard CM Eyonix. . When the player's level increases, the points of +hit rating needed to achieve +1% chance to hit with spells increases as well. Viz, the percentage contribution by each +hit rating point is reduced when the player's level is increased. Other than hit rating, a caster can increase chance to hit with talents, depending on class. How spell hit chance is calculated The spell hit mechanic has been confirmed by Blizzard CM Eyonix. Base chance to hit is based on level difference between caster and target, starting at 96% for even levels, and going up or down from there, capping at a maximum 100%. Furthermore, the chance to hit is different for mobs (PvE) and player (PvP) targets. For example, a level 70 caster attacking a level 73 mob will have a 83% chance to hit with spells in PvE. Furthermore, a level 70 caster attacking a level 74 or higher mob decreases by an additional 11% per level in PvE, and by 7% in PvP. Players many levels below their target will always have at least a 1% chance of landing a spell. This means you will have the minimum chance of hit against PvE targets at least 11 levels higher than you, and PvP targets at least 16 levels higher. For casters, 1% of additional hit amounts to 1% additional damage statistically, up to the cap based on level of the mob being attacked. Increasing spell hit Chance to hit can be increased by talents or gear with spell hit rating up to a cap of 100%. Hit rating is a stat found on gear that increases hit chance by a certain percent per point, based on level. At level 70, 12.615 hit rating is equivalent to 1% hit. At level 80, 26.232 hit rating is equivalent to 1% hit. At level 70, the highest level mob currently present is level 73 (e.g. all BC raid bosses), a level 70 caster has an effective spell hit rating cap of 215. At level 80, the highest level mob currently present is level 83 (e.g. all WotLK raid bosses), a level 80 caster has an effective spell hit rating cap of 446. That assumes no other spell hit sources. Aside from gear with spell hit rating, chance to hit can also be increased through some buffs and spells. Draenei casters give an additional 1% hit to their group with Inspiring Presence, as well as debuffs like a balance druid's Improved Faerie Fire and a shadow priest's Misery. The following table lists some talents that also increase a caster's chance to hit with spells. Taking these effects into consideration lowers the effective hit rating cap. Talents and gear combined, chance to hit with spells can reach 100%. Casters should keep this cap in mind when considering their gear. In PvP, anything more than +4% chance to hit is excessive. For PvE raiding, bosses are considered to be 3 levels higher than the caster, meaning +17% is the most that will be effective. Note that some classes (for example Paladins and Rogues) can spec to gain extra chance to have spells miss them. Also, some abilities (e.g. - Cloak of Shadows) gives the player using the ability extra chance to have spells miss as well. Extra spell hit does in fact mitigate this extra chance to miss, but is otherwise useless. Effect of resistance Spell resistance has a separate effect that is considered in addition to spell hit chance, and is based on a resistance stat for a specific school. In general a certain amount of resistance will mitigate a certain percentage of damage from a magic school. For binary spells that do not partially resist, the resistance mitigation is combined with the spell hit chance to give an overall percentage for the spell to land or be resisted. The chance to hit is multiplied by the mitigation factor from the resistance to give an overall chance to hit. For the following formula, B is base chance to hit with spells, H is increased chance to hit from gear and talents, and R is the mitigation factor given from resistance. (B + H) * R For example, a caster with 6% increased chance to hit, attacking a mob 3 levels higher (83% base chance) that has enough resistance to mitigate 50% of spell damage, the overall chance to hit with a binary spell is 44.5% (83% + 6%) * 50% = 44.5% For non-binary spells, resistance is computed as a second calculation after the spell hit chance is rolled. After a spell hit is determined, a partial resist calculation based on resistance is done, which can also result in a full resist. These two resists once appeared identically in the combat log, and there was no known way to distinguish a spell miss from a full resist. However, as of patch 3.0.2 the combat log now distinguishes between a spell miss and a resist. The effect of Hit chance on Critical Hit chance Unlike the melee combat system, spell crit makes absolutely no difference to hit chance. All spells, regardless of whether they are treated as binary or not, roll hit and crit separately. Conceptually, the game rolls for your hit chance first, and if the spell hits you have a separate roll for whether it crits. Overall chance to crit over all spells cast is thus affected by hit rate. To calculate overall crit rate, multiplying the two chances together: crit rate over all spells = crit * hit For example, a caster with no spell hit rating gear or talents, against a mob 3 levels higher (83% hit chance), and 30% crit rating from gear and talents: crit rate over all spells = 30% * 83% = 24.9% In addition, direct damage spells suffer from partial resistance, but again, that has no effect on whether a spell hits or not. Hit rating caps for level 70 & 80 A common question among casters is how much hit rating is needed to hit the 100% chance to hit cap. As stated earlier, this depends on the level of the targets one expects to encounter, and any talents that add chance to hit with spells. The following table summarizes how much hit rating is needed for a certain level, after all talents and buffs are taken into consideration. To use the table, first add up how much hit you already have (don't forget the possibility of a draenei in your group or debuffs on your target that can increase your chance to hit with spells), then look up that row to find the hit rating cap for targets level 70 up to 73 or 80 up to 83. End-game raiding casters generally use the level 73 or 83 columns, as the effective level of bosses is 73 or 83 (for level 70 and level 80 content, respectively). The hit rating numbers in the above table are all rounded up to the next integer number. E.g. 26.23 (1% at 80) becomes 27, 393.47 (15% at 80) becomes 394. While this may seem counter-intuitive at first, the intention is to provide the number which will give 100% spell hit (i.e. the "hit cap"). If they were rounded to the nearest integer, some would still leave a small chance to miss, e.g. rounding 393.47 to 393 only provides 14.98%, leaving a 0.02% chance to miss. It is up to each individual to determine whether they are willing to tolerate that very small chance to miss, or if they wish to completely eliminate it. The assumption in the table is that it is desirable to guarantee that spells will not miss. With the hit changes to several talents that gave spell hit in patch 3.0.2, notably Shadow Focus, Arcane Focus and several Elemental shaman talents, the ability for a few classes to get very high passive spell hit has decreased significantly (before the patch, draenei Elemental shamans were able to achieve 13% passive hit through talents and Inspiring Presence). Currently, the only way for a class/race combination to surpass 4% passive spell hit is through debuffs on the target (Improved Faerie Fire and Misery) As a rule of thumb, a level 70 player against a level 73 boss needs +12.615*k hit rating, and a level 80 player against a level 83 boss needs +26.232*k hit rating, to achieve +k% chance to hit with spells. That means that on 70-vs-73 fights each point of +hit rating contributes about +0.079% chance to hit with spells, and on 80-vs-83 fights each point of +hit rating contributes about +0.038% chance to hit with spells. Also bear in mind that if you have a draenei in your group their Heroic Presence will get you one scale lower from where you where in the above table thus enabling you to swap 1% hit rating from your gear for more useful stats. The inspiring aura buff does not stack of course. See also *Resistance *Spell hit gear References Category:Formulas and game mechanics Category:Attributes